A Study of an English Civil War Pamphlet Concerning an Incident at Hull in 1642

This paper constitutes an exercise in the critical analysis of historical media discourse. It presents an investigation of a pamphlet published in London in 1642 concerning a military incident that took place at the strategically important town of Hull in East Yorkshire during the build-up to the start of the English Civil War. The analysis shows how the pamphlet combines a number of elements including the ominous tale of a miraculous ‘toad fish’, a prayer and news of the incident itself. It also shows how the pamphlet reports on the incident from a royalist perspective and contrasts this with another report of the same event from a parliamentary perspective.